This scientific research project is called the PACS 1997 Tropical Eastern Pacific Process Study. PACS stands for Pan American Climate Studies.

Cumulus is a type of cloud. The researchers are going by ship to the middle of the Pacific Ocean to study clouds and to find out how much it rains. With the scientific instruments on the ship they will be able to collect data about the weather in this part of the world. People are interested in how storms grow in the Pacific because these storms affect us on land. They especially affect the weather on the west coast of the United States. Scientists have satellites taking pictures from space. There are two methods of taking pictures but these two methods do not always agree. There are big differences in the pictures being sent back to Earth. Some of the pictures show that this is the rainiest area on Earth while others show much less rain.

Scientists on this cruise are going to find out how much it rains by using weather radars and other measuring instruments. They will compare the data collected on the ship with the information coming from the satellites. They will also try to understand the reasons for the differences in the data. The conclusions they reach will have a big impact on weather forecasts.

The researchers also hope to find out a lot more about the storms in this area by taking pictures of the clouds, writing hourly logs about what they see, sending weather balloons up into the sky every 4 hours, taking pictures of the weather with the radar 24 hours a day, and gathering information from a variety of other weather detection equipment on board this reasearch ship, the R/V RONALD H. BROWN.